Once again, Warped Tour rolled through Salt Lake City, and I said to myself, (despite having seen a handful of the bands playing several times before), "ah…what the hell?" and went. Psyching myself up for upcoming trip to Hellfest in New Jersey, I knew it would be the usual Warped Tour fan fare; a lot of annoying pop punk bands and a lot of annoying-ass people.

I ended up getting there about an hour late, and had to wait in a huge line. I heard My Chemical Romance finishing their set. They played that new song, "I'm not Okay…I Promise" and it's about an okay song, if anything. They ended with the only song they ever made that I cared about: The one about vampires. While in line, two guys hoped the fence, not realizing that even though the overweight security guard standing 50 feet away from them would never catch them even if hell froze over, she still had a radio on her to inform every other security guard. Dumb Asses.

As we neared the entrance on the Utah State Fairgrounds, Story of the Year was playing their set, and just about everyone in line was going ape shit about missing them. So what? Some gutter punked-out kids were ahead, having to remove all their punk rawker stuff that they had to spend 30 extra minutes putting on before Warped, because, after all, it's all about the image. Wouldn't be rebellious enough if you didn't have your orange Mohawk and studded bracelets. When I finally got it, I ran over to the board to see that Thursday was playing on one of the main stages, so I caught their set. They played a good variety of old and new, closing with ‘Signals Over the Air' or ‘Autobiography of a Nation', I forgot which one. And yes, Geoff Rickley did not fail to sway and move about as if her were a woman the entire time. I headed towards the Smart Punk and Uproar stages afterwards hoping to catch Staring Back. I couldn't find their name anywhere, or any time, and I started to worry (Over It was playing at that time too). I walked around the merch booths for a while and bought some stuff, and I also got my Coheed comic book signed by Claudio. Yeah, shut up, I don't want to hear it. Anyone of you elitists would cream your pants if Fat Mike had his own comic or started something called Punk Voter in which everyone thought it would be punk rock to say the president sucks and kiss Fat Mike's ass. Oh…wait.

Alkaline Trio played next and were good as usual. They played quite a bit of newer material, and did a nice little quick cover of Billy Idol's ‘White Wedding' towards the end of that one song about vicodin and a bullet or something…I don't know, I don't really care for that album too much. Bad Religion played not so long afterwards, and so I watched them. Greg Graffin announced that he wasn't wearing sunglasses anymore on Warped so that you could see the emotion in his eyes when he sang ‘Recipe for Hate', and then dedicated it to the crowd. Bad Religion was good, as always.

I did some more walking around and looking at all the booths and smaller stages, I watched NOFX for a little while. Fat Mike dedicated a song to "Whoever wanted to see George W. Bush get fucked in the ass". Wow, great to know you don't want to come off sounding smart in lieu of being cool with the punk rocker kids and saying things like "fuck him in the ass". I have no problem with ripping on Bush, I'm not a fan, either (don't even start, I don't care for Kerry, I think most politician's are lying bastards) but in a setting with so many young people and being a person in such a "prominent" position, maybe he should be educating people, informing them, and not being so immature about it. This kind of attitude was displayed all day, and it reminds me of when I saw Fahrenheit 9-11 and my sister's friend had one thing to say: "What a jerk Bush is, we should all go to the White House and kick his ass". Yep, great to know you're using your brain and offering a legit solution.

I happened to be walking by as Senses Fail was playing and they stopped in mid-song to tell a couple individuals in the crowd that they were "Fucking idiots" because they were fighting. Speaking of fighting, who the hell came up with the idea of wearing giant, bulky skate shoes with jeans that are two sizes too small, and five inches shorter than they should be? I want to fight those kids because they look ridiculous.

Coheed and Cambria was the next band I saw, I'd never seen them live before, and they had a huge turn out. The majority of their set consisted of songs off the new album, with two from their first. They played tight and Claudio only forgot a couple lines. I really like this band. I don't know why the hell people lump them into the "emo" genre. When I think of "emo" bands, as in, the popular definition-bands like Dashboard Confessional, Silverstein, Rufio, Taking Back Sunday, etc. come to mind, right? So how the hell does anyone consider this band "emo"?! Their lyrics are based around a fictitious story about space and some crazy ass characters. The singer has a high voice, so what? That guy from the Darkness does too and I never hear anyone call them "emo". It might be nerdy, but it's not the same shit as Rufio. Stop calling them that.

Flogging Molly stole the show as far as I'm concerned, as they always put on an energetic show. Everyone from the American Eagle jock to the smelly gutter punk kid, to the 40 year old trailer trash bums were there for Flogging Molly. Dave King in an amazing front man, he told the crowd that even though he is Irish, come election year, we should vote George W. Bush out of office, because having him in office not only effects America, but the entire world, which they went into ‘Selfish Man'. They played ‘Rebels of the Sacred Heart', asking if there were "any good Catholics out there" to which King replied, "I've never known a good Catholic!" and towards the end, while singing "Bless me father, for I have sinned…" He stopped for a second to say "It wouldn't be the first fucking time" to a huge response from the crowd. They mostly played material off Drunken Lullabies and even a song from the new album (due out in the fall). Watch this band if you're at the Warped Tour. Hell, watch them if they're just touring and stop by your town.

It was already rainy and windy by the time we headed over to see Taking Back Sunday. A friend of mine told me they put on a really good show. The band was energetic, telling the crowd to do the "Braveheart thing" by both sides splitting up and running at each other (a concept that it seemed to take the crowd awhile to get), as their vocalist kept trying to hurry things up (it was lighting too, I wouldn't really want to be up their either). Despite the lighting they played a "full" set as far as Warped standards go. They played a song off the new album, ‘Bonus Mosh Pt. 2" which received little to no response from the crowd. They played some more songs from ‘Tell All your Friends' but we left before they were done to beat the traffic. All I know is that they played the first song from their first album and ‘Timberwolves at New Jersey'.

All in all, it was fun. I recommend you go and see Rise Against and Staring Back for me, and Flogging Molly because they put on one hell of a show. And don't forget to leave your cool punk spike bracelets, studded home made Casualties jean jackets and belt buckles at home, because you can't wear them in anyway.